Trump labor meeting worries progressives

For 30 minutes on Wednesday — more time than he has given some candidates for Cabinet positions — President-elect Donald Trump held court in his Tower with a high-powered New York Democratic operative and two labor leaders.

Trump was not accompanied by any staff as he sat in his office chatting with Peter Ward, president of the New York Hotel Trades Council, and Jennifer Cunningham, a Democratic strategist and former member of Hillary Clinton’s New York leadership council. (Also in the meeting were Vincent Pitta, a New York labor lawyer, and Jim Callahan, general president of the International Union of Operating Engineers.)

The meeting represented a symbolic victory of sorts for Trump, similar to his wining and dining of Mitt Romney, as well as his meeting with former Vice President Al Gore — a sign, perhaps, that some labor groups and Democrats who backed Clinton were slowly coming on board, or, at least, willing to sit down and talk.

For Cunningham, a longtime partner at the consulting firm SKDKnickerbocker and a local power player in union politics, and Ward, who has worked with Trump for years, it was also a chance to speak to the country’s next president about healthcare, in a moment of rare access.

But some Democratic labor leaders in New York City were gripped with fear that the meeting only helped to normalize the president-elect at a critical juncture — just as the labor movement is hoping to rise up as a force of resistance and a reinvigorated voice for vulnerable Americans, in opposition to the incoming administration.

The differing viewpoints about the benefit of the Trump meeting demonstrate the challenge ahead for Democrats and progressive groups in figuring out a coherent strategy for taking on the Trump administration.

“Rather than working with Trump,” said one concerned New York labor leader, “I think unions with immigrant members like the Hotel Trades Council should be the most concerned.”

Ward, local labor leaders warned, is a pragmatic operator, not to be mischaracterized as an avatar of the progressive labor movement. In the past, he has supported Republicans running for the State Senate in New York after finding himself aligned with their campaign against the apartment-sharing website Airbnb.

But an ally of Ward’s defended the decision to sit down with Trump, a hotel owner who uses union labor in his New York properties and has known Ward for years.

“Very few labor leaders have access to the president-elect,” the Ward ally said. “Peter's got a long history in New York hotel world with Trump. Peter's got access, so why not try to figure out if there's a way to do something?”

In December, the local chapter of Unite Here, which works closely with HTC, signed a four-year union contract with Trump Organization for the new hotel in Washington, D.C., as well as two Trump casinos in Las Vegas.

But Wednesday’s meeting wasn’t about business. According to two sources briefed on the meeting, it was described as a courtesy call by Ward, who asked Cunningham, a longtime operative who has represented clients like the healthcare behemoth 1199-SEIU, to accompany him. Cunningham is also the ex-wife, and current close adviser, of New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman, who is investigating Trump’s foundation.

In the meeting, Cunningham and Ward pushed him on healthcare, according to a source briefed on the conversation. In response, Trump was “very broad, and not specific, about protecting people, and saying he was not going to let anyone get hurt,” the source said. But he offered no specifics on the issues.